In a salute to classic science fiction, and 50s sci-fi movies, I ALONE- War of the Worlds follows two scientists as they search for a way to defeat the invaders; narrowly escaping death themselves on more than one occasion. This book is interactive. Navigate your way through the story, to EIGHT DIFFERENT ENDINGS!

I spoke to the author about his excellent book and here is what he had to say...

"As you might have seen, the book has multiple endings. In one I tie in Roswell and Area 51. (I checked with my local 'conspriracy theorist' and he said he never heard or read of a Roswell theory similar to the fictional scenario in my book.) I also pay tribute to Wells' TWOTW, and make it very clear to the reader that his book influenced mine and I'm acknowledging it.

The book also has multi-national settings, and I did not forget our British cousins. In fact, one chapter is titled 'The Battles of London and New York.' I note the bravery with which the British face the aliens. (I was inspired after watching a documentary about The Battle of Britain in WWII.)

I sketched this book out ten years ago, and it was originally going to be titled 'Remembrance Day,' as the aliens attack on November 11. But of course when Independence Day came out I had to scrap that idea. But I do refer to Remembrance Day in the book, and the aliens still do attack on the 11th."

I used to love the old Fighting Fantasy books as they were called too. But if you go back to them the prose is really infantile. Hopefully this new book by a different author of course will hopefully be more adult in context.

When it says 'interactive' Lee.. does it mean it's like one of those old Steve Livingstone adventure books?

From the Author...

"I saw the question by Evilnerfherder. The reply by Slick2097 is pretty much it, except the reader makes his/her decision based only on the titles of the next chapters and not by a specific action of a character (if that's what Slick meant by 'go north' and 'go south.' Forgive me if I misunderstood). For example, after one of the chapters it reads, 'Turn to: The Tesla Howitzer, page 203, or Cataclysm, page 221.' A flow chart is included at the beginning of the book. Any other questions, I'll do my best to answer them."

Maybe I'll make a fanfic myself. I'll then put it into view of two persons: a boy and a girl, around my age, who barely escaped from being incinerated, but of both their families and friends were less lucky. It's still in planning though, so I'm not sure I will make it, unless you're eager...

The Tempest is an advanced assault vehicle, which carries two heavy Heat-Rays and a Canister Launcher.

Here's the prologue of the story. It'll take some time to put the chapters here, because my story is told through the eyes of both the boy and the girl. The point of view may differ... The story is called The Struggle.

PrologueI awoke the day, with great expectation to see my girlfriend Susan again. Due to the bond I share with her, she also is happy to see me again. She’s staying with me for the week.
”Get up, son, your girlfriend is coming.” my mother said.
”I’m on my way!”
I get to the bathroom to get a good shower. It took me 5 minutes to get downstairs after the shower, and get clothed. When I was in the living room, I could see my parents sitting at the table. Dad is reading the paper as usual, Mom prepares breakfast, and my younger brother and sister were happily playing on the floor. Unaware what the rest of the day would bring, I studied my medical book once again. I want to be a surgeon, so I can help people out. Ironically enough, my girlfriend studies also medical, to become the same what I want. We both know that, and we hope we can work in the same hospital. Breakfast is ready, time to eat. I put my book away and began to get my toast.
”That’s odd. A strange object seems to be lying in Horsell Common, near Woking.” Dad said.
I get astonished. Woking is the place where my girlfriend lives. I live in Weybridge. In the afternoon, I heared the doorbell ring. Once I opened the door, I saw my girlfriend standing there.
”Hey… come on in…” I said, slightly blushing.
Susan giggled. She too was blushing. We realized that an engagement between us was imminent. She came in to the house, and we both headed to my room to study. Dad went out to work, my brother and sister were at school, and Mom was doing the laundry. Without realizing the day wouldn’t be the same as usual, we entered my room, and began a 1,5 hour period of studying, before taking a rest…

The Tempest is an advanced assault vehicle, which carries two heavy Heat-Rays and a Canister Launcher.

If you insist... Here's the first chapter. Everything that is yellow are the parts told by the girl.

Chapter 1: The objectWhile we were studying, in the street spreaded the news of the fallen meteor (that is what they thought it was) quickly through our neighbourhood. We didn’t pay much attention to it. We were studying for 30 minutes now, and the only distraction was the news spreading across the street. We held our attention on the books, but since the news was spreading fast, we decided to take a look at Horsell Common. Along with his parents, we drove in the car to the common, where we met up with my parents. At 11.30 am we arrived at the common, and we saw the Thing, what is believed to be a meteor.

According to our science classes we followed together, we soon realized that meteors mostly consisted of rock, and this was pure metal. It’s a cylinder like thing, and we kept watching it until 3 pm, when our parents deciced we should go to my place, and me and my girlfriend should get back to study. We agreed, but the Thing was in our mind until sunset. We then decided to drink some tea, before we went to bed. Tomorrow it’s Saturday, and we would have our weekend together. Just as we drank our tea, we heard some terrific news from both our parents…

Since we’ve been studying for hours, my parents thought we had a good concentration skill together, despite the constant jabbering and noise from his brother and sister. So they tripled the time I’m allowed to stay by my boyfriend, as long we kept on studying. We agreed, and we promised to study winthin those weeks. Then we heared someone knocking at the door. It was 10.30 pm. Who could it be at this time of day?

My mother opened the door, and an unknown man hurried in, and sat down. The man sustained some 1st degree burning wounds, so my girlfriend and I applied the First Aid.
”What happened?” my father asked, after the wounds were cleaned, slightly cooled and bandaged.
”You know… about that Thing on Horsell Common, right?” the man said. We all nodded.
”The Thing opened. It contained strange creatures, I heared Ogilvy the Astronomer say that the object came from Mars, so these creatures were Martians.”
”How did they look like?” my mother asked.
”It’s a huge, rounded bulk, maybe larger than a bear, with two, disc-like eyes, a V-shaped mouth and a number of tentales around it. I was one of a few men who were close at the pit, and I had no disturbances of the sun during sunset. However, I backed off until I reached a distance of 30 yards from the pit.”
”But why are you so injured?” my girlfriend’s father asked.
”That’s because these creatures launched a beam of intense heat. A group of people, with Ogily, Stent and Henderson among them, received the full force and were burned in an instant. The beam itself almost got me, I was very lucky to survive. I tried to run, but the bush around me was in fire already, so I gat some flames on me as well. Had I not have stumbled and kept due to that rolling on the ground that extinguished the fire, I might have been burned as well.” the man told.

We were all shocked as we heared what the man had been through. Though me and my boyfriend found this hard to believe, we pitied the man. When it was 00.15 am, we decided to get some sleep. Since there was an attic, my parents slept there on a bed. I went in bed with my boyfriend. We talked about what the man has told, until is was 1 am. Then we kissed each other a good night, and we fell asleep.

The Tempest is an advanced assault vehicle, which carries two heavy Heat-Rays and a Canister Launcher.

Well, I've just finished Chapter 2. I'm still working on Chapter 3, so you'll have to be patient.

Chapter 2: A painful escapeThe next morning we learned that another cylinder has landed at Byfleet Golf Links, to the north-west of Woking. My girlfriend and her parents realized that their home is almost in the direct dangerzone, they decided to ship their most important possessions over to my place. I went along with them to help them, and they really appreciated my offer, especially Susan herself. We arrived at 12.00 pm at her place, and while Susan and her parents got the stuff they needed, I helped them to load the stuff in the car. My girlfriend got her job done quickly, all she needed were her books, some jewelry, and some fresh clothes. Her parents however took more time. Susans father was done at 1.30 pm, he had to get his precious stamp collection all the way from the attic. Susan was embarrased, and I didn’t say a word of it, something my girlfriend really appreciated, since it was her father anyway. Her mother waas still busy.
”Man, she’s probably picking all of her favorite clothes again.” her father said, getting impatient.
”Dad, Mom is simply that way.” Susan said on a light angry tone.
I didn’t pay much attention to their arguement, I kept a close watch at the surroundings. If there was any danger, I would warn the others immediately about it.

It was over 5 pm. My mother was still busy picking her stuff. My boyfriend waits as patient as I am, I’m getting impatient. At 5.30 pm my mother finally appeared, and me and my boyfriend were bewildered as we learned that Mom has taken her entire collection of dresses, shoes, jewelry and the pet birds with her, and that we couldn’t get into the car. I protested, but Mom refuses to listen to that. Dad pities us, but is forced to go along with Mom. Before they depart, Dad gives us £ 50, enough to rent a wagon at the Spotted Dog. I begin to cry silently after they departed. Never before I felt such an disappointment for my mother, thinking her clothes and all that is more important than me, her own daughter. They wanted to take Rick along, but he refused.”If you don’t take Susan along, I won’t be coming in your car either.” he said.He’s such a good friend. He wants to be at my side, to accompany me on our journey to his place at Weybridge. We began our wandering to the Spotted Dog to rent a coach. He comforts me, because I still can’t believe my parents actually left us here in Woking. We walked for an half an hour on end, until we heard sounds of screaming, gunfire and explosions. We stopped and looked to the direction where the sounds came from. Suddenly a white flash came towards us. Rick didn’t hesitate and flang himself to the side to avoid it, taking me along with him. We both fell on the road as an explosion suddenly was heard. What I then remembered, before I was rendered unconscious is that Rick laid on me to use his body as a shield to protect me from rubble, and that the Oriental College is almost destroyed. The rubble, mainly bricks landed then on us, first it rendered Rick unconscious, and a second later I got knocked out.

An half an hour later we both woke up. Susan gave me a kiss to thank me I tried to save her, though we both sustained some injuries. We went along until we were out of the reach of this strangs white light, that sets fire to anything it touches. We also noticed people running, and we ran along with them to hurry our progress. Nevertheless we were slowed down since we had some cuts on our legs, and we left traces of blood behind. A soldier hurried towards us, fortunately it was a medic, and he bandaged our wounds before we could go on.
”What’s going on?” I asked.
”It’s the Martians. They attacked the army at Horsell Common and the army has sustained serious losses due to this heat-ray they use.” the medic explained.
”You mean that white flash that destroyed the Oriental College?” Susan asked, and the medic nodded.
We decided to get out of Woking as soon as possible, the medic stayed behind to help other injured people. We reached the Spotted Dog at 6.45 pm, only to see the place deserted, and the only coach available has been rented already. We looked at each other, and we had no choice but to go to Weybridge on foot. We hurried back to the road and ran to the right. It took us 20 minutes to reach the final street in Woking, far enough of the common. Ten minutes later we heared an explosion behind us, and when we looked behind us, we saw that a group of houses, including Susan’s were struck by this heat-ray the medic told us about. We looked a little further, and we startled at what we saw. Susan and I held each other tight, as we saw a huge, spider-like machine, higer than lots of houses, walking on three legs entering the town and started to attack it. With no time to waste, me and my girlfriend hurried on approximately 15 mph towards Weybridge, trying to stay out of sight of this Tripod. We both had good skills in athletics, so we were able to maintain this speed for the next hour.

The Tempest is an advanced assault vehicle, which carries two heavy Heat-Rays and a Canister Launcher.

It's your lucky day, Gone for a BURTON. The 3rd Chapter has been finished now:

Chapter 3: Homeless without a familyExhausted but relieved we entered Weybridge. Within the period after we hurried from my place to his, we came in a fierce thunderstorm, in which we also made our first contact with these three legged machines, who almost annihilated Woking, including my home. This way I’m now forced to stay with Rick, something I don’t mind, since he’s a good friend, full of care, something I witnessed an example of it since he shielded my body against the rubble falling from the college with his. The thunderstorm caused that some branches fell from trees, and on some of those occassions one of us stumbled and fell due to these branches, on other ones we both fell. I can remember that while we were running along, that one branch fell clear on our heads. It didn’t cause major damage, all we had was a strong headache for 15 minutes. It´s 9 pm when we got to his place, where we learned that the wagon with my parents was struck by this heat-ray. Only my father survived. He´s with us, but I was heartbroken at the loss of my mother. We also learned that some of our best friends haven’t made it as well. This made it even worse for both of us. Jennifer… Ashley… Robert… Frank… all gone. We told what happened to us, and what we have seen.

Our parents were impressed at what we have told, and they were also convinced that we didn’t thought this story off. Our parents took care of us through the rest of the evening, they made sure our wounds were clean, to prevent that we would suffer from terrible diseases, such as cholera and typhoid fever, or that the wounds would inflame. They replaced the bandages the medic used with fresh bandages, and they told us that we would leave Weybridge tomorrow to head for the harbor in London. A steamer would be there to take refugees to Ostend in Belgium. At 12.00 am we went to bed, and drank some water, before we sank into a restless, haunted sleep, in which one of the nightmares was we got crushed under one of the legs of these Tripods. My mother pitied us.

On the dawn of the next day, dad told us that a third cylinder carrying those animals had fallen near Pyrford, and that they were about to leave, and dad doesn’t want the same mistake what my mother did by leaving us behind in the dangerzone. At 12.30 pm we had left Ricks house and left towards London. An half an hour later we heard sounds of gunfire, and great explosions. We looked behind us, and saw that five of these Tripods attacked Shepperton and Weybridge as well. We also saw some guns concealed at Shepperton, firing restlessy in an effort to stop the Invaders. Then we heard a different kind of explosion. It’s like as if something, a body perhaps, simply bursted asunder. When we looked in that direction, we saw that one of these Tripods suffered a direct hit from one of the shells from the guns. It stumbled against the Shepperton Church, undoing it from its tower, before it fell in the river. We realized that the guns succeeded in taking one of the Tripods down. However, we had no time to yell fo victory, since the four others suddenly took revenge by wiping the guns out, and stamping Weybridge flat with their heat-rays. Then the house directly next to where we were was hit by the heat-ray. Our fathers pushed us from the coach, before it caught flames too. When we turned around, we realized with horror that our fathers sacrificed their lives to save us. Ricks mother, brother and sister were less lucky in the escape.

I screamed as I saw my parents and siblings being overwhelmed by the fire. I tried to get to the coach to save them at all costs, but then the heat-ray prevented my action as it simply blew the coach to bits. I and Susan ran for our lives and within minutes we found ourselves near the river. We stopped to rest, and as soon as I realized that we were far enough from the battle ánd out of the reach of the heat-ray, I fell on the ground, and I began to cry, like a helpless child, since my family has been wiped out. My girlfriend wants to hug me, I allowed her to, she tries to comfort me. She knows how I’m feeling right now, she joins me with crying, since she lost her parents as well. We cried along for an hour, until we decided to continue our journey. Our clothes have been partially torn apart, the bare spots on our back were soon scorched by the sun. Tears are still welling up in our eyes, and we could do nothing except letting them fall. In the evening we had reached Sheen, but we had to hurry. At 11pm we found a deserted house near Sheen, and decided to take refuge there. I could hardly control any emotion that were playing in me, anger to the Martians, sadness at the loss of my parents, fear of those Tripods, and then, it became too much for me, and I fell on my back on the ground. shortly after that Susan fell next to me. We managed to grab each other’s hand, and gave a smile to each other, before we both passed out. Susan laid herself with her last powers on me, as she said in herself that during our unconsciousness one of us might be kliied by either rubble of a cylinder that would fall, or the house would go into flames by the heat-ray, she wants to die along with me, so we both would be reunited with our loved ones.

The Tempest is an advanced assault vehicle, which carries two heavy Heat-Rays and a Canister Launcher.

Last edited by oever532 on Thu Jun 23, 2005 4:26 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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